Tricks & Behaviour Modification

When Tricks Can Be Helpful During Behavioural Therapy

When it comes to learning that your dog has a behavioural problem, most people get pretty upset at their dog, themselves or both. Usually people think one or more of the following:

A) their dog is out to get them (dominate them to take their 'alpha' role in the pack) - I love how people think dogs are these incredibly smart master minds that are power hungry, but really they're not that intelligent nor out to seek power from humans.
B) play the blame game - blame it on anything that is relevant in your dogs life (breed, spouse, friends, other dogs, environment ect)
C) think you are the reason for your dogs problems - you messed up somewhere along the way

Usually it's a mixture of all three. We over complicate our dogs, dogs are simple creatures that are in a alien world so sometimes the communication between human and dog gets lost in translation. Mainly because humans have a completely different communication system then our four legged furry friends.

How are tricks and behavioural modification alike?

When you think of teaching your dog a trick, what's involved, what do YOU need to do to get that final result?

1. Patience

2. Something to motivate your dog to initially perform the desired behaviour
3. For you -A basic understanding of how to teach the trick, you can't teach a dog something if you don't know what you're teaching.
4. Time

When you think of behavioural therapy, what's involved, what do YOU need to do to get that final result?

1. Patience

2. Something to motivate your dog to listen to the handler and perform a desired behaviour that we need.
3. For you -A basic understanding how your dog should react in the problem situation at hand, such as not reacting on leash to another dog while on a walk, you can't teach this to a dog unless you know how to.
4. Time
5. Management in some cases

If people had the same thoughts on behavioural therapy as they do with tricks, many complex problems could be avoided

Example:
PROBLEM AT HAND: Dog reacts to other dogs while out for a walk (on-leash reactivity)

Think of the trick (final goal) as having the dog walk by another dog without any reaction. You would first write out a program/plan of a behaviour chain (many different goal behaviours paired together to give us the final product) example of a bang "you're dead" trick : You need a 3 goal behaviour chain to produce the final result.

1. Have your dog sit pretty (Stick em up)
2. Have your dog lay down (Fall down to play dead)
3. Have your dog roll on his side (To play dead)
Final result - play them all together and you have "bang you're dead" trick, eventually you just need to start the trick and the dog will finish it by herself because it has become muscle memory.

So for the problem behaviour (on leash reactivity) you will need a 3 goal behaviour chain to produce the final result.
1. Teach the dog a leave it cue ( to be able to get your dogs attention in a high arousal state)
2. Teach the dog a "watch me" (look at the handler)
3. Teach your dog the "lets go" command (keep walking)
Final result - play them all together everytime you see a dog on your walk and eventually your dog will know the drill and offer it without commands given because it has become muscle memory.

Always remembering that your dog isn't out to get you, believe me, there have been absolutely no evidence that dogs are out to rule the world starting with their families. And that dog's will always do what is most reinforcing to THEM.

If your dog has a serious behavioural problem, don't try to fix it on your own if you don't know what you're doing, you could end up with a more complex problem on your hands that will take more time to fix.

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